Pick a perfect pokey polearm

[TheFocusedOne]

Yo doodz,

Frail old man here.  Been thinking ab... *cough* *gasp* *wheeze*  Ah! Jee... *cough* *COUGH* *hack* *cough* ... Jesus... Christ....  Where was I?

Fucking black lung.  Anyway... I notice on the website that the polearms don't say if you need 1 or 2 hands to use them.  I'm thinking or respeccing into a spartan build because I figure some tanky support might be more my game, y'know?  So lay it on me, bitches.  Which is the strongest, longest shafted wooden pole I can wrap my hand around.  AND NOTICE I SAID HAND, as in singular.  I want to use a shield.

Yours in the spirit of Yeweh,

A Frail Old Man

[Moncho]

You have a few options:
Heavy lance: long but very slow
Ashwood pike: I like it
Double sided lance: never tried it, looks decent
Battle fork: I tried and did not like it
War spear: Good but Red Tassel spear is better imo
Lance
Light lance
Staffs
Spear: good for low levels
Bamboo spear: insane reach, not a bad option
Shortened spear for the speed

And a few others, but I would not recommend them (havent tried them so cant really say)

[Gurnisson]

Bamboo Spear, Ashwood Pike, Light Lance, War Spear and Battle Fork are the best ones of each style imo. Depends if you want length, damage or a nice balance

[TheFocusedOne]

A 'nice balance' being the war spear, then?

[zagibu]

It doesn't have enough damage, IMO. Go ashwood.

[Zerran]

Ashwood is what I would recommend. Bamboo is a slightly nicer support weapon but the damage loss makes it not worth it unless you have some dedicated teammates.

[Digglez]

ashwood prob best overall, but warspear def has best polestun effect

[Spawny]

Ashwood is the best hoplite weapon atm imo.

When you fancy putting away your shield every now and then, the ashwood is still viable, but the warspear or double sided lance would be better options.

Support and sometimes fighting without shield (only when it breaks): Ashwood

[Vibe]

Mind that you cannot sheath ashwood pike, so bringing it in case you want to use a 1h too won't work.

[FRANK_THE_TANK]

Still remains unmentioned. Double Sided Lance. +3 its quick and has a heap of power.

Also for the bamboo spear and ashwood pikes you can use a Qstaff as a back up if you need to dump and run. But TBH you are better off just putting the shield on your back and beating all hell out of them.

My first choice is bamboo spear, the range REALLY helps. But the idea you have to keep in your head is that you aren't going to get a lot of kills. You will do 2 things with the bamboo spear, stun jerks so a dude with a big old 2h can crush their heads and keep the cav at bay. Also if you don't have a side arm you can take a massive steel shield or Heavy Board shield.

[Spawny]

Still remains unmentioned. Double Sided Lance. +3 its quick and has a heap of power.

Also for the bamboo spear and ashwood pikes you can use a Qstaff as a back up if you need to dump and run. But TBH you are better off just putting the shield on your back and beating all hell out of them.

My first choice is bamboo spear, the range REALLY helps. But the idea you have to keep in your head is that you aren't going to get a lot of kills. You will do 2 things with the bamboo spear, stun jerks so a dude with a big old 2h can crush their heads and keep the cav at bay. Also if you don't have a side arm you can take a massive steel shield or Heavy Board shield.

Very true. Bamboo is great support.

Keep in mind that there are 2 important factors determining your runspeed penalty:
- Weight
- The length of the weapon you carry

The bamboo spear is very long and the heavy board and steel shields are VERY heavy and thus, the penalty to your movement speed will be considerable.

[TheFocusedOne]

Well... considering I am on my very first generation and don't have any loomed gear, I suppose being a 'support' class might be for the best.  I only wear cheap leather in the hopes that someday... next month... I'll be able to buy a loompoint and use my own from retiring to get a decent weapon.   Until then it seems that even my espada can't poke through anything heavier than padded.  I don't mind the respec to go into polearms if it'll make me actually useful for my teammates.  With that in mind, the bamboo spear might be my ticket, huh?

[Moncho]

Loomed items are not really such a big advantage.
From normal to MW my nordic champion swords only wins 3 cut, 2 pierce and 1 speed, so it is not that much.
I am only gen 3 and do quite well, what is a disadvantage is being low level.
It is normal that you cant kill much until level 20 ish, but then you have a long time to go as higher level and can do damage. Just dont despair for being a peasant (low level), been there and it sucks.

[TheFocusedOne]

That's what I hear from people... but an ~ 10% increase in a weapon's stats is a big buff... at least it is to my mathmatician's brain.  Yes, I understand that turning into attacks and positioning are of utmost importance, but at the end of the day the guy with the bigger numbers on his gear is going to fight with the favour of the Gods on his side, isn't he?

As it stands I usually go about 0.5: 1 to 1:1 at level 25-ish with my espada, which I use pretty much exclusively for it's poke - which is why I've been wanting to replace it with a spear.  Sure the sword is slashy, too - but the slash is only good aganist clothes, and even then the poke is just as good or better, and it is the ONLY thing good aganist metal clothes.

My min/maxxer's heart screams for length and power!  LENGTH AND POWER!

[Pantalones]

I know this goes against the norm but I prefer the shortened spear for it's speed and dare I say, it's shorter reach. As a shielder/hoplite you'll get face-hugged and spammed a lot. The slower speed and longer reach of the other spears are moot at this point. The shortened spear also takes only one slot, which for me is crucial since I use the 2 slot Huscarl shield and a 1 slot back up weapon. It takes some getting used too but It works best for my playstyle. As a bonus it's also cheap!